Skybox part of portal ?

Kalti · Post by **Kalti** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 8:54 am

I did test it but it showed me two different results... so just looking for some confirmation about it...

Can parts of a portal consist of skybox brushes ?

Post by **jv_map** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 9:13 am

Uhm

you mean areaportal?

Kalti · Post by **Kalti** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 9:19 am

Yes... I tried it with the Areaportal tutorial map

Just applied a sky texture to the ceilings, added worldspawnsettings... compiled it and checked it out with the 'r_showtris 2' command.

Two portals did still function, but one wasn't

seere · Post by **seere** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 11:19 am

Kalti wrote:I did test it but it showed me two different results... so just looking for some confirmation about it...

Can parts of a portal consist of skybox brushes ?

Yes, as its structual there is no problem with this, I have done it before in testing, with clever brushwork you can have a building sticking out of a sky brush with obviosly a door for the area portal and looking like the building etc is leading to a garden or whatever.
It has the desired effect in creating a whole new level in a map with its own amounts of tri counts etc.
Seere.

Kalti · Post by **Kalti** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 11:32 am

Whoohoo !

Say thankya

lizardkid · Post by **lizardkid** » Sat Jan 15, 2005 5:30 pm

wait wait wait, i sense cleverness here, but WHAT???

putting a door on your skybox and makig another one over it? wow.. that means unlimited level space...

tltrude · Post by **tltrude** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 7:10 am

If you make an areaportal room, that room becomes an area. But, everything outside the room also becomes an area. So, you have two areas, one inside and one outside--within the skybox. And, of course, if you stand in one area, the other will vanish.

Kalti · Post by **Kalti** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 12:33 pm

It's nothing new, but a great possibility for my map for I can now add an area which I had originally planned but had to scrap because of the performance impact it had.

It's tricky to make it work though as a rather open map layout will seem strangely restricted by the small looking portaldoors you need to place between the main and the added skybox. In MP the few and small portal doors are likely to become bottlenecks. One way to do it is making sure there are enough portaldoors in and out the additional skybox.

I have 'buffered' the connection between main and added skybox with at least 3 portaldoors (which will close somewhat faster after being opened) and the distance between both outer portaldoors is such that a player can't reach the outer before the other door has closed.

Now you could do it with 2 portaldoors but the chances of them being opened at the same time are far greater... perhaps you could solve it by script... ie. keeping one of the doors 'locked' as long as the other one is still open. Although this is apt to lead to some confusion amongst players.

tltrude · Post by **tltrude** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 12:30 am

I'm not sure what you are trying to do, but you can do the same thing with two visleafgroups that target eachother.

Kalti · Post by **Kalti** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 12:41 pm

True... but I want to keep the ability to close off the seperate skybox by script (and disabling the spawnpoints inthere)

Master-Of-Fungus-Foo-D · Mon Jan 17, 2005 11:41 pm

i dont get it... could some1 explain this in a simpler way?

lizardkid · Post by **lizardkid** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 11:49 pm

means he has a door and an areaportal on the door, makes the inside a portal and everythng inside the skybox (because he didn't use it indoors) a portal too. and he wants to be able to switch the outside and inside off as he wishes.

Master-Of-Fungus-Foo-D · Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:22 am

lizardkid wrote:means he has a door and an areaportal on the door, makes the inside a portal and everythng inside the skybox (because he didn't use it indoors) a portal too. and he wants to be able to switch the outside and inside off as he wishes.

ummmm wha?
(the red part is what i have the most trouble understanding...)

Kalti · Post by **Kalti** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:03 pm

It's just 2 skyboxes connected by a door with a portal.

When you're in one skybox and the door with the portal is closed, the other skybox won't be drawn (and everything in it as well) off-course this also works vice versa.

So by use of the door with the portal we now have two different portal areas.

tltrude · Post by **tltrude** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 5:26 pm

As long as your door (or script_object) has a targetname, its area brush can be switched off and on by scripting.

$my_door openportal
$my_door closeportal

Those same commands are automattically sent to the area brush when a function type door opens or closes.

Hope that helps!

.Map :: MoHAA Mapping

Skybox part of portal ?

Skybox part of portal ?

Re: Skybox part of portal ?

world

boxes

targetname